Ready to go

I feel like a kid on the night before school starts. My shop re-opens tomorrow after Hurricane Ike. Will the people return? Will we have a strong fall? Don't know at this point.

I'd love to have a big birthday party for the shop on Saturday. But is this the right time? Maybe I'll wait a bit. Happy 8th birthday to us!

I remember so well getting ready for the opening of the shop. We had about 500 candles and thought that was huge. I had no idea what to ever expect with this venture. Still amazes me that we have employees and ship nationwide. I thought I'd do everything and it would just be a shop only business. Didn't know the internet would kick in, and I resisted wholesale and fundraising as long as I could.

I wouldn't trade anything about it.

Oh My Achy, Breaky Body

Going from 0 to 60 is what my body feels like it did today. This old body is unaccustomed to physical labor. When you have several tons of wood fall out of your trees, then you have to pick it up. And we did.

I fear what this old body will feel like tomorrow. Just bending over and picking up even the lightest of sticks would make me sore. But, dragging big branches to the fire pit is likely to make me very tender for the next 24-48 hours. Wonder what the massage therapist is doing tomorrow? Think I'll be making an appointment if at all possible.

It amazes me how generous people can be. Our next door neighbors gave up their entire Sunday to help us today. The work wasn't easy, but these folks hung with us the whole day. So giving. So appreciated.

There's a long nap in my near future. Night night.

Randomness at its finest

As if I've not written enough about the weather, I return to blogging after quite the weather-related absence. Now that Ike has taken a hike, it's back to normal.



Ha! What's normal? I've been evacuated for the past 9 days. Such a surreal period of time. Seems like I did nothing, but I sure was exhausted every night. I can't believe that storm was already a week ago.



Things that you take so for granted have flown by the wayside. Even the local McDonald's has been closed all week. Huh? What? No quarter pounders? Not if you live in Maplewood. Even the shopping center nearest there has been closed all week. Unreal. Traffic lights are hit or miss still.



Came home to a phone call on the answering machine that thrilled me. A dear friend from college has resurfaced and tracked me down. I've missed her and was so pleased she found me. She and I go for years with no communication, but we always reconnect. Can't wait to hear the latest in her life. Always interesting and fascinating. Always was.



Gotta love it when your DH sets something on fire. Hurricane winds blew down trees in our yard, so he's burning tree branches and such. Mostly ours. However, winds carried an ember to the neighbors' yard and set one of their trees afire. At least they were nice about it.



So much to do to try to get life back to normal.

Little Labor on Labor Day

I love the weather. I really should have been a weather person. The radar, the pictures, the forecast. All of it. I even got up in the middle of the night to check the progress of Hurricane Gustav.

I'm really glad it's hitting somewhere that's not here. The sound of the high wind sends me over the edge. But I am addicted to weather.

Nothing is happening here. Figure I'll go to the grocery store and try to cook something today. I have a hankering for brisket, hash brown casserole and gussied up cornbread.

Looks to be a lazy day around here. How exciting is laundry? Ah, the life of a middle-aged housewife. Perfectly riveting.